Marvel Announces Special Issue #1000

Marvel Comics has announced plans for a special 80-page giant issue to celebrate their 80-year anniversary as a publisher, bringing together an all-star team of nearly a hundred writers and artists, ringled by Marvel’s Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk, You Are Deadpool).

In an interview with the New York Times, executive editor Tom Brevoort and editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski explained the project. Each page of the 80-page giant will correlate with a different year in Marvel’s history and have a different creative team, some of whom have deep comics pedigrees, while others are newcomers to the medium. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will make their comics debut on a page in collaboration with artist Javier Rodriguez, Black Eyed Peas member Taboo will be partnered up with Geoffery Veregge, and journalist/professional athlete Kareem Abdul Jabbar will contribute with Raymond Obstfeld and Mattia De Iluis.

In addition to Ewing and the “newcomers,” issue #1000 will also feature the work of comics legends like George Perez, Alex Ross, Tim Sale, and Gail Simone, as well as fan-favorites such as Tini Howard, Jason Aaron, and Saladin Ahmed.

Where does the #1000 come into play here? Great question. Brevoort explained the number was a mostly symbolic choice. The symbolism in question is a less-than-subtle response to Marvel’s competitor, DC Comics, having released two milestone #1000 issues of both Action Comics and Detective Comics in 2018 and earlier this year, respectively. Both Action and Detective, however, hit their 1000-issue tallies after eighty-plus years of uninterrupted publication.

The Marvel Comics title began publication in 1939 under publisher Timely, the original home of other Golden Age heroes like Captain America and the Human Touch. Timely eventually evolved into the modern day Marvel Comics some thirty years later in the early 1960s, bringing an assortment of its vintage heroes along for the ride. The Marvel Comics ongoing title, however, did not make the jump–which perhaps was a bit of a blessing given how near-impossible it is to differentiate the “Marvel Comics” comic book title with the “Marvel Comics” publishing company in conversation.